Re: What is the meaning of an expression?

Jan Ziak <0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com>
Mon, 17 Jan 2022 15:45:10 -0800 (PST)

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What is the meaning of an expression? christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com (Christopher F Clark) (2022-01-14)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? DrDiettrich1@netscape.net (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2022-01-15)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? gah4@u.washington.edu (gah4) (2022-01-14)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? gneuner2@comcast.net (George Neuner) (2022-01-15)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? matt.timmermans@gmail.com (matt.ti...@gmail.com) (2022-01-15)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? 0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com (Jan Ziak) (2022-01-16)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? 0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com (Jan Ziak) (2022-01-17)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? 0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com (Jan Ziak) (2022-01-18)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? gah4@u.washington.edu (gah4) (2022-01-18)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? DrDiettrich1@netscape.net (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2022-01-19)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? 0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com (Jan Ziak) (2022-01-19)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com (Christopher F Clark) (2022-01-19)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? tkoenig@netcologne.de (Thomas Koenig) (2022-01-19)
[5 later articles]
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From: Jan Ziak <0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2022 15:45:10 -0800 (PST)
Organization: Compilers Central
References: <AdgJPKhi/NiNfECvRNaA6+4Wq/M8OQ==> 22-01-052 22-01-060
Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="97646"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com"
Keywords: theory, comment
Posted-Date: 17 Jan 2022 22:18:33 EST
In-Reply-To: 22-01-060

On Sunday, January 16, 2022 at 6:27:58 PM UTC+1, Jan Ziak wrote:
> On Friday, January 14, 2022 at 6:40:24 PM UTC+1, Roger L Costello wrote:
> > For example, the meaning of this expression:
> >
> > 1 + 1
> >
> > is 2.
>
> The meaning of 1+1 is a transition between two states. ....
>
> -atom
> [We seem to be pretty deep in this tarpit now. -John]


@John It's not about a tarpit. If a person believes that the [only] meaning of
1+1 is 2 then it increases the probability that the person does not know about
modulo arithmetic: (1+1 mod 2) is 0. Thus, it is better to adopt the more
general viewpoint that the meaning of an expression is a transition between
two [machine] states. A next concern is the complexity of those states.


-atom
[Now we're even deeper in the tarpit. Is the "meaning" a mathematical statement,
an instruction to a compiler to generate code computing the value of an expression,
something else? I don't know, and it's pretty clear none of the rest of us do either.
-John]

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